Nobel-winning little ‘spongy crystals’ with a surprising amount of interior space

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Richard Robson, Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yaghi on October 8, 2025 for the development of metal-organic frameworks, or MOFwhich are tunable crystalline structures with extremely high porosity. These are a class of materials that have truly changed the way scientists design and think about matter, inspiring advances in various applications.

I am a MOF scientist and for many of us in this field, this recognition feels historic and deeply personal. MOFs aren’t just fancy crystals you’d admire under a microscope; They are a whole universe of structures, each like a miniature city of tunnels and rooms waiting to be filled. They have been my scientific home since I started researching and they still feel a little magical to me.

So what exactly are MOFs?

Organometallic structures are like crystalline scaffolds built from two ingredients: metals that act as connective bonds and organic (i.e., carbon-based) molecules that behave as bridges to join those bonds in a repeating pattern. The result is a highly ordered, porous structure, a kind of molecular architecture that is both strong and full of empty space.

These structures are so porous, like sponges with small holes, that it is almost impossible to imagine them. One gram of MOF has so many pores that it can expose as many internal pores as possible. surface like soccer field. It is surprising that a handful of gunpowder can hide an entire surface landscape inside.

That huge surface area is one of the unique things that makes MOFs so powerful, and it comes from nanoscale pores: tiny molecular rooms that can trap, separate, transform, or transport gases. ions and other molecules. In some ways, MOFs are like molecular hotels with countless doors, each programmed to admit only certain guests.

Why scientists love them

What fascinates me most about metal-organic structures is their unlimited design space. With just a glance at the periodic table, each metal could, in principle, serve as a building block, and countless organic molecules can act as bridges connecting them. Even using the same combination can produce completely different architectures.

Until now, scientists have synthesized more than 90,000 MOFand computational chemists have predicted hundreds of thousands more. Few material families offer such versatility.

I like to think of MOFs like puzzles or Lego sets, but on an atomic scale. You can replace a single piece, or change its color or shape, and end up with a material that behaves completely differently.

Add a new “decoration” (what chemists call a functional group) and the framework suddenly recognizes a new molecule. Stretch the organic bridges and the architecture itself inflates like a balloon, giving what we call Isoreticular MOFs. They have the same structure, but larger pores. In short, MOFs can come in almost every shape, size, and texture imaginable.

Expanding the limits of these materials

Beyond their scientific elegance, MOFs hold incredible promise for real-world technologies. Different structures and functionalities lead to different properties and therefore different uses.

Some MOFs act as molecular sieves, selectively capturing carbon dioxide from industrial exhaust gases or even directly from the air. Others clean and polluted water eliminating heavy metals, dyes or “forever chemicals“.

Certain MOFs can also transport medications or imaging agents within the body. for medical applications. In the energy world, they work. as electrodes or electrolytes which make batteries safer and more efficient. and many serve as catalystsaccelerating chemical reactions that transform one molecule into another.

When I started my PhD, my senior colleagues warned me that MOFs could be too delicate: beautiful crystals that would crumble at the first hint of air or moisture. And indeed, some of the earliest structures were fragile curiosities, admired more for their elegance than their strength. But that perception has changed dramatically.

Many MOFs are now remarkably robust. The material I worked with for the first time was a titanium-based organometallic structure. called MIL-125. It was first reported by Gérard Férey, one of the key figures in the MOF and porous structures community who sadly died in 2017. MIL-125 was not only stable, but virtually indestructible in my laboratory. After synthesizing two grams, I banked it in an open vial and used that same batch for every catalytic experiment throughout my PhD. Without glove compartment, without desiccator—just a jar of yellow powder sitting happily on my bench.

That experience taught me something important: While stability may be a legitimate concern, MOFs have grown. Thanks to smart chemistry, we have materials that can Resists water, heat and repeated use.. Since its founding, researchers from around the world have introduced new properties to these materials—from electrical conductivity to light responsiveness—and, most importantly, made significant progress in scaling up MOF synthesis for industrial applications.

Scaling up is the key step in bridging the gap between fundamental discovery and large-scale implementation. Researchers are no longer content to study MOFs in milligrams; We often plan in grams, kilograms and more.

Some startups are turning these advances into real technologies, from storing gases more safely to extracting gases. clean water straight from the desert airto build more energy efficient air conditioners. What once seemed like science fiction (dusts that breathe, trap and transform molecules) is now scientific fact.

Despite these advances, researchers will need to continue improving the stability and scalability of MOFs to fully realize the potential of these materials in the real world.

A Nobel moment that honors creativity

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes further honoring three notable scientists—Celebrates an entire community: a generation of chemists and engineers who transformed a single idea into a thriving field. The pioneering visions of Richard Robson, Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yaghi laid the foundation for a vibrant discipline that has grown to encompass everything from gas storage and catalysis to energy and environmental technologies.

When I attended my first MOF conference as a second-year Ph.D. As a student, I listened in awe to many of the pioneers of this field, some of whom are now Nobel laureates. Back then, MOFs felt like magic sponges and that sense of wonder never left me. It led me to continue my research on conductive MOFs: materials that can transport electricity. Now, in my own research groupWe study how these frameworks can make batteries safer and more efficient, and how they can capture waste gases and convert them into useful chemicals using sunlight.

For me, this Nobel Prize celebrates more than a discovery, it celebrates a philosophy: chemistry is creative, we can design and engineer matter with imagination, and sometimes vacuum can be the very essence of a material.

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